be humane, and that humanity and justice require that the state should protect those who are wholly unable to protect themselves. If he pleads for the growers of home sugar, it is because he thinks it unjust to have encouraged French agriculturists to cultivate the beet-root for that purpose, and then to leave them without protection. If he pleads against military tribunals being applied to civil of fenders, even though the latter should conspire in concert with soldiers, it is because he thinks it unjust that a man should not be tried by his equals, and his equals, his fellows, are not military judges, but a jury of civilians. If he pleads for an amnesty, for its extensive application, and for its freedom from all restraints, it is because he thinks it just, that after a great political revolution, in which all deserve blame, at least that portion of the people should be pardoned for their errors who are the least instructed, and the most under the influence of their passions. We might continue our examples to a much greater length-but these are sufficient to establish the accuracy of our observation.

The same principles of justness, and love of justice, which is in him the source or foundation of his actions, is also the cause of his moderation of language, purity of diction, and of that proportion which exists between that which he means to say or to write; that which he ought to say and to write, and that which he does say and write. So the thoughts of his poetry are symmetrical. There is nothing bombastic in his mind—and, therefore, his writings, whilst eloquent, sometimes impassioned, and often didactic, are always just. Even his descriptions of nature and even the creations of his fancy-are all so just, whilst they are so brilliant, that it is the romance of real life which he makes you interested in, and feel about, and you are never ashamed of your emotions. We certainly think this great praise-but it is deserved on the part of De Lamartine, and why then should we hesitate to accord it?

But we must close. The life of De Lamartine is a double one. He is a poet and a politician-a Christian moralist and an enlightened statesman. His mind is large his activity great— his exertions indefatigable. His labours

are political, philosophical, and liter ary. His existence is, however, calm and dignified. It is spent at Paris, or at Saint Point, the old family resi dence of his father. During winter he is at the Tribune. He takes a deep and lively interest in all the passing events, examines them, and prepares to act as one should do, who believes himself capable of operating on the minds and convictions of large masses of beings. His poetry is then forgotten-and his prose alone remains. At Paris, he never writes poetry: it is at Saint Point that he gives himself up to the muse and the lyre. In Paris, he receives his friends at his residence at the Rue de l'Université twice aweek, and there he listens to all the plans which are brought before him for the amelioration of the condition of our poor humanity.

When the month of June arrives, the Chambers break up-the political life of De Lamartine is at an endand another existence commences. He quits the capital for Macon - reaches his old chateau of Saint Point, with its old elms, its Arab coursers, its devoted farmers, its repose, and its sanctity, sacred as it is to him for its holy inspirations and its souvenirs of the dead; and there, some miles from Macon, he passes his days, till summoned by his parliamentary duties to a Parisian life.

At the chateau of Saint Point, in a small study, facing a chapel, behind which repose, in the cemetry, the ashes of his mother and his children, De Lamartine writes his beautiful poems. It will one day be the object of a literary and political, social and moral pilgrimage. May that day be far distant!

De Lamartine is yet in the prime of life-possessing true patriotism, and true genius, being at once a Christian Conservative, and a magnificent poet; having a heart large as the world he loves, and a judgment matured by experience, and regulated by observation and reading--with a fancy and imagination unsurpassed by any living being-and all brought under subjection to religious influences and religious objects

he may render great service to his country, to his age, and to the world. That he will do so, we cannot doubt, and with him we have but one regret— that he is not a Protestant.

FROM the day when the Emperor Paul uttered his insane threat of marching an army of Cossacks from Orenburg to India, the designs entertained by Russia on our eastern possessions, and the dangers to be apprehended in that quarter in the event of a war, have furnished a fertile topic of gloomy ratiocination to that class of alarmists, the constant tendency of whose speeches and writings has been to exalt the power and resources of the Muscovite empire as contrasted with our own; and, while loudly proclaiming the unbounded ambition and encroaching policy of that power, to deprecate any attempt at an opposition, which could only draw down on our heads the irresistible vengeance of the northern colossus. Sir Robert Wilson in 1817, and Colonel De Lacy Evans in 1829, stood pre-eminent above the rest for the confidence with which they predicted an expedition of the Russians against India, and the ruinous consequences which must inevitably result to our Oriental rule; while the opposite side of the question was sustained by the Quarterly Review, which contended in ably argued articles, that (even if the limited finances and cautious policy of Russia were not sufficient guarantees against her embarking in so Quixotic an expedition), the march of 2000 miles from Oren. burg to Delhi, the impossibility of transporting guns and stores across the deserts of Turkistan, the want of provisions and water, and the unceasing hostility of the Turkoman tribes, would be a sufficient security that the invading army, if it ever reached our Indian frontier at all, could arrive there in no other condition than that of a diminished and exhausted remnant, destitute of supplies or artillery, and ready to fall an instant and easy prey to the numerous and effective Anglo-Indian forces which would encounter it. The total failure of the missions of Mouravief to Khiva in 1819, and of Negri to Bokhara in 1820, by means of which the Cabinet of Petersburg attempted to open more intimate and friendly relations with these Tartar or Turkoman sovereignties, showed that the opposition to be expected in that quarter, at least, had

not been overrated; while the equally rooted hostility and superior power of Persia appeared to interpose a still more effectual barrier to the route by the west of the Caspian: the friendly relations of Russia with Great Britain, and the improbability of her severing them for the doubtful chance of a remote and precarious conquest, were severally set forth and insisted on: and the result of all these arguments was, that most of our domestic politicians, after verifying the geographical positions laid down in the Quarterly, by a glance at the map of Asia, remained in a comfortable conviction that there was little fear of East India stock being frightened from its propriety, during the lives of the present generation, by the apparition of the Russian eagle on the Indus.

But these reasonings, however well founded they may have been fifteen years ago, have, in the present day, ceased to be applicable; for, by an unfortunate perversity, while the warnings of the alarmist writers above alluded to, and the solid facts which they adduced in support of them, fell almost unheeded on the public ear, the inconsistent policy of forbearance and concession to Russia, which was advocated as the only means of diverting the storm, has been scrupulously acted upon by each successive Ministry, and has been rewarded by a series of insults and indignities, increasing in due proportion to the tameness with which they were acquiesced in. When the Russian Emperor, in 1828, on finding that the obstinate valour of the Ottomans was not so easily overborne as he had expected, instituted a naval blockade of the Dardanelles (after having solemnly waived the rights of a belligerent in the Mediterranean, and received all due applause for his magnanimity), the indifference with which our Government viewed the detention of British vessels, and the maltreatment of British seamen, gave Russia an assurance of impunity of which she was not slow to avail herself; and the secret encouragement given to the Pasha of Egypt, the consequent treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi, the capture of the Vixen, and the late authoritative attempt to place a veto on the con

clusion of the commercial treaty between England and the Porte, demonstrated in rapid succession to Europe the moderation of Russia, and the weakness or long-suffering of our foreign policy. In distant Persia, after her military power had been broken by the war which was terminated by the peace of Turkmanschai in 1828, the game of intervention was played even more openly; and no means were left untried to undermine and destroy the influence which a long alliance and constant diplomatic intercourse had procured for England at the Court of Teheran. During the life of Futteh Ali Shah, however, the Russian counsels never openly gained the ascendency. The wily old Kajar appreciated the sincerity of Russian treaties and promises too well to be cajoled by them; and his often quoted answer to a proposition for improving the internal communications of his dominions, shows his clear insight into the motives which dictated it:" The horses of the Irânis can go where the horses of their ancestors went; but if we make wide roads, the wheels of the Infidels will be speedily seen traversing them." But, with the death of the old sovereign, and the accession of his inexperienced grandson, a change came over the spirit of Persian politics, and the flimsy veil which had covered the designs of Russia was instantly thrown aside. Scarcely four years have elapsed since this young monarch, assailed on all sides by the pretensions and revolts of his innumerable uncles and cousins, was placed in secure possession of the throne by the vigorous exertion of British arms and influence under Sir Henry Bethune; and he has repaid these services, which might have secured the gratitude of even an Asiatic despot, by insulting the British Minister, admitting Russian emissaries into his divan, and Russian troops into his capital, and lending himself as a willing tool to Russian intrigues which, under the pretext of assisting Persia in the recovery of her ancient possessions in Korassan, have for their real and scarcely veiled object the opening of a road through the Affghan and Seik tribes to the British frontier in India. In

In

furtherance of these views, Herat has been besieged by the forces of Persia, with the aid of Russian troops and artillery, under the direction of a Russian general; and, had it fallen, would, of course, have been re-fortified and occupied, nominally for the Shah, by a Russian garrison, as an advanced stronghold and place d'armes from which, whenever the favourable opportunity should present itself, a Russo-Persian army might have advanced to the Indus, by the route which has been followed by every invader of India on the Asiatic side, from Alexander to Nadir Shah. In the intoxication of anticipated triumph, even the common forms of diplomatic courtesy towards England were violated: and Mr Macniel found it necessary to break off all communication with the Persian court, and to quit the camp before Herat; while Mahommed Shah publicly declared that the capture of Herat would be only preliminary to a career of conquest which should rival the past achievements of Nadir, and carry the Persian arms once more in triumph to Delhi. Europe, the language held by Russia and her agents was equally explicit ; the Augsburgh Gazette, after plainly avowing that the aim of the Russian operations in Persia, was "the opening a road to the most vulnerable of the English possessions," gave the following lucid commentary on that text: "England does not conceal from herself her weakness in the East Indies; she knows that on the day when the natives, better informed concerning their own interests, shall unite together in resistance, British dominion in Southern Asia will end. On the other hand, Russia also knows her task; she is aware, that to her is reserved to take the initiative in the regeneration of Asia; and it is this which explains the jealousy at present existing between the two powers." Surely this candid acknowledgment must be sufficient to convince the most determined believer in the infallibility of the Quarterly, that whatever might have been the case some years back, our Indian empire requires at the present day some more effectual bulwark than

either the hollow friendship still subsisting between the two powers, or the extent of desert interposed between the Siberian outposts and the Indus.

Let us, in the first place, examine of what real value are those geographical obstacles which have been so often referred to as placing insurmountable barriers in the way of a Russian march to India. The route by the east of the Caspian, by Khiva and Bokhara, requires little notice, since it is not likely that it will ever be attempted when a more commodious and easy road lies open; but even here we may remark, that the desert of Kharism, intervening between Khiva and Khorassan, and often represented as impassable by an army, was crossed in 1740 by Nadir Shah, with all his troops, stores, and artillery, when marching against Khiva, which he took, and put its Khan to death; and in the opposite direction, to the north of this oasis, it is currently reported in India, that the Kirghis desert has recently been traversed by a Russian corps, moving in the track of the caravans, and that to this unexpected diversion is attributable the non-arrival of the auxiliary troops of Khiva and Bokhara to the relief of Herat. But the Russian troops may be wafted on the long course of the Volga, from the heart of European Russia to Asterabad, the southernmost harbour of the Caspian; the exclusive navigation of which sea with armed vessels was ceded, by the way, to Russia, by the peace of 1828 with Persia; and from Asterabad to Herat, if the Persian territory be open to their passage, is a direct road of 450 miles, interrupted by no natural obstacle after the mountains of Mazanderan are crossed at the commencement of the march.

Asterabad, indeed, was once attacked by Ahmed Shah Doorauni, the founder of the Afghan monarchy; and if he had succeeded in annexing it to his empire, the whole distance from the Caspian to Sirhind, within the present British frontier at Loodiana, would have been included within the limits of his single kingdom. From Herat, the emporium of Central Asia, and the depot of the commerce between Cabul, India, Cashmere, Persia, Bagdad, &c. the road to India, by whatever route, is more beaten and accessible than the internal communication between many parts of the Russian empire; and if

Nicholas could once display his ensigns on its ramparts, he might inscribe over its gates, "the road to Hindostan," as confidently as his grandmother, Catherine II., placed the vaunting inscription," This is the way from Moscow to Byzantium," over the southern portal of Kherson. A military map of the route, "constructed topographically with great care, by Herat, Candahar, Ghizni, and Cabul, to Attock," was even shown to Burnes at Lahore, by M. Court, a French officer in the service of Runjeet Singh; he "pointed out the best routes for infantry and cavalry," and stated, that "though he had encountered jealousy from the Raja, he had still managed to complete a broad belt of survey from Attock to our own frontier!" This route, though not quite direct, is the one which would most probably be taken by an invading army; and the whole distance to be traversed from Asterabad to Delhi, would thus be about 1500 miles, or somewhat less than the distance from Paris to Moscow; the halting places are respectively distant from each other as follow:-from Asterabad to Herat, 450 miles-from Herat to Candahar, 290, through a country unencumbered with mountains, and principally along the valleys of the Furrahrood and Helmund rivers-from Candahar by Ghizni to Cabul, about 230, the most mountainous part of the road from Cabul to Attock on the Indus, 180-and thence through the Punjab, crossing three of its rivers, 180 miles more to Lahore or Amritsir-thence to Delhi, 270, crossing the two remaining rivers of the Punjab between Lahore and Loodiani. By turning from Candahar southwards towards Mooltan, three of the rivers of the Punjab might be avoided, but the distance would be rather greater-from Candahar to Mooltan, through the passes of the Suliman-Kok mountains, and over the Indus and Chenab, is 330 miles, and from Mooltan to Delhi 350. There is yet another route from Candahar, still farther to the south, by the confines of Seistan and Beloochistan, through a level country, and unobstructed by either mountains or rivers (except, of course, the Indus, which would be crossed near Shikarpoor); but the whole extent of this line passes through arid and uncultivated districts, destitute of provisions or water, being,

in fact, a continuation of the great sandy desert of Kerman, where Alexander and his army suffered such hardships on their return from India-it has, however, been more than once traversed by Asiatic armies. This detailed itinerary may, perhaps, seem tedious to our readers, but it is only by such dry matter-of-fact statements that we can dispel the vague idea of trackless steppes and immeasurable distances, which is popularly associated with the regions of the East, and which has led many to consider our Indian frontier as secure as if, like some of the kingdoms in the Arabians nights, a hundred years' journey intervened between it and the nearest neighbouring state.

The tidings of the siege of Herat were at first received with apathy by the mass of fire-side politicians in England, who, finding from their gazetteers that Herat was a city of Khorassan, and Khorassan a province of Persia, inferred nothing more than the Shah was intent on chastising a rebellious portion of his own dominions; and it was by slow degrees that the public mind was forced to comprehend the fact, that our faithful allies the Russians, were actively endeavouring, with every prospect of success, to subvert one of the bulwarks of India. The unceasing denunciations of the press have succeeded to a certain extent in undeceiving those, who, as long as we remained nominally at peace with Russia, and no Russian army of the Indus commenced its march with displayed banners across the desert, could not be persuaded that any real danger was to be apprehended from Russian machination: but open violence has never been the favourite game of Russia: she never advances to the assault of the citadel, till she has sapped and undermined the exterior defences: and it is before the walls of Herat that she has first emerged from the covered approaches which she has been for years silently constructing, even in the heart of the distant Birman empire, for the attack of Hindostan. Herat, in fact, is the Shumla, as the mountains of Afghanistan are the Balkan, of the exterior defences of India; and if we do not anticipate the Russians in the possession of them, they may, at no very distant period, complete the analogy by descending thence to the plains of

Hindostan, and dictating, from within the walls of Delhi, as formerly at Adrianople, a treaty by which the power and territory to be possessed by the Lords of Calcutta shall be regulated by the good will and pleasure of the White Khan (as his Asiatic subjects call him) of Petersburg.

It is true that the gallant and successful resistance which the Heratees have unexpectedly made, has postponed, for the present, the further prosecution of these schemes of conquest: want of provisions, and the false alarm of the approach of the forces of Bokhara to the relief of the besieged city, have compelled the Persian monarch to withdraw his troops, and retreat in disorder towards his capital, after a desperate but fruitless attempt to carry the place by storm, in which the assailants are said to have lost more than 2000 of their best men ; several Russian officers fell on this occasion, and their heads were fixed on the ramparts of the city. The retreat of the Shah was probably hastened by the news of a revolt rumoured to have broken out in Shiraz and Western Persia, in favour of one of the princes who visited England in 1836, and who are now resident at Bagdad. Their partizans in those provinces, of which their father for many years held the vice-royalty, are known to be numerous, and disaffected to the rule of Mohammed Shah, whose unnatural alliance with the hereditary foes of the Persian faith and nation has alienated from him the bulk of the popula-tion; and their hopes have been raised by the occupation, by an AngloIndian force, of the island of Karrack, which commands the harbour of Bushire, the principal port possessed by Persia on the Gulf. No detailed accounts, however, appear to have been hitherto received of the progress of the Persian revolters, or of the operations of the British troops subsequent to their establishment on Karrack; but it is obvious that an unpopular monarch, returning from an unsuccessful expedition with a broken and dispirited army, and an empty treasury, could oppose little effectual resistance to the insurrection of a warlike population, headed by a former claimant to the throne, if the powerful aid of British discipline were thrown into the scale against him. It was perhaps the anticipation of such a